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Let's remember for a moment that this is the Pro version of the iPhone, the PRO version!... head to head to the boring Pixel 4.
 
Just for perspective, I would love it if they'd include a $500 DSLR in the mix. Yes, I get that a phone in your pocket beats a DSLR in your closet at home, but just show what that different league looks like at print resolution. These phone camera comparisons are so silly next to how good "good" is.

There are times when a phone can be a lot easier to maneuver to get a shot with a phone than a DSLR.
And these new phones do a good job. It has gotten to the point where unless I am shooting for exhibition I often leave my Sony bodies and lenses at home, even on vacations to foreign countries.
 
I'm really tired of these macrumors comparisons ending the same way, saying that they can't pick a winner and it comes down to platform preference. Grow a pair and make a decision for once.
Why so we can have 20 pages of fanboys complaining over the decision. Let people make up their own minds. It’s like I wish The Verge would stop giving numerical scores on their reviews. The comments section ends up being all about why did one review get an 8 and another a 9. Stupid.
 
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Not much of a difference, at least at these sizes. The reasons I prefer one camera in one set are the things I don't like about that same camera in another set.

Video's another story, of course.
 
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I think they both have great cameras but I can’t help but feel slighted by no wide angle lens & so-so video recording. Google is always a little cocky about not jumping on industry trends only to add/remove said trend in the next model. I’m glad reviewers are starting to talk about video quality more so this year than in past years. It always annoyed me how it seemed no one cared about video performance and audio performance but were so quick to crown it as best camera phone.
 
iPhone is the clear winner here. Also
When comparing Portrait Mode, the Pixel 4XL seems to produce sharper images and it has superior edge detection in most cases.
is the complete opposite of the conclusion MKBHD came to. It showed the P4 had shocking edge detection, and didn't really use the second camera for depth information at all. Never mind that it no longer can take wide portrait photos like the iPhone now can.

With that, terrible video, no wide angle camera and worse night mode it's hard to not make the iPhone the clear winner this year.
 
Scrolling through I can’t tell a difference, except for the night mode, where I think the iPhone looks sharper, and more detailed.
 
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Phones are becoming virtually equal in most areas now. It's just personal choice at this point. With that being said, Apple hardware is top in terms of memory/OS efficiency and security. This is a no-brainer.
 
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iPhone definitely wins for video - the front facing camera on the Pixel 4 doesn’t even shoot in 4K. The back camera also doesn’t support 4K at 60fps on the Pixel. As to photography, I’m still shocked Google added a 2x telephoto lens to the back and not an ultra-wide angle camera instead. An ultra-wide angle lens is more versatile in my opinion.
 
It's not clear cut.


For me...

Image quality, HDR and detail D
Low Light C
Wide Low Light A
Astrophotography D
Zoom D
Selfie D
Macro C

but for $1K+ I'd rather invest in something like a Sony A6600.
 
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Thanks for enlarging the pizza and the subway stairs! The iPhone in portrait mode has more artifacts (pizza) and less detail on the stairs. For those 2 modes, a win to the Pixel 4. (I carry an iPhone & its photo are terrif ... and it weighs. a lot less than a DSLR!)
 
The real winner is the average phone user of either phone...who will never visit this site or a google specific site for these kinds of comparisons...they will get good pictures out of either phone.

People who get serious about photography will appreciate having a phone in those moments when they don’t have their much better mirrorless or DSLR with them. But it will still be years before a phone can match a dedicated camera. But hopefully someday that day will come.
 
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Both of these phones do massive amounts of digital processing on the images. You can literally take two photos after one another of the exact same thing and they will look different because the phones decided to do the processing a bit differently because a few pixels were darker...

I don’t even know how you can truly compare smart phone cameras... they are so inconsistent.

All of the pictures posted to this story look good, but the question is, how many shots did it take to get these?

Agreed, it really is up to the whimsy of the particular phone manufacturer as to how to post process the image in both hardware and software. I think reviews like these need a baseline photo taken with a really high-end DSLR camera, than compare the Pixel and iPhone photos with that baseline photo. Same with Video, take a video using a dedicated high end video camera and then compare in a similar fashion.

Whichever model gets closest to the high end stand-alone wins. Theory being the stand-alone should blow both out of the water.
 
They both look great. I’d be happy with either one. But, I’ll not upgrade yet, sticking with the X till it dies... or a really compelling phone comes out.
 
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All the flagship phones these days have great cameras, you can’t really tell the difference anymore.
 
It is interesting that so many reviews come to completely varied conclusions about these phones/modes.
 
As a lay user, all the pictures look fine. Thus other factors will come in if I were to choose between the two, factors like actual usability and battery life. The phone that less annoying for me on day to day will be the winner. And so far based on online reading, if I were to choose between these two phone, the iPhone will be my choice. The radar gimmick, poorer battery life, and inconsistent FaceID on the Pixel offset any camera quality as those things will annoy me as a lay user on a daily basis. I don’t want to sacrifice battery life and security of my phone just so I can get some slightly sharper photos.
 
The side-by-side comparisons that Macrumors post between Samsung v.s. Apple v.s. Google are so close, that consumers aren’t able to differentiate the most minimalistic differences. I think the Pixel has improved quite a bit since it’s first GEN camera, but the iPhone Pro-Max is equally on that level. Camera competition is pretty close in this sector.
 
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